Maratha Morcha: Chanting of 'ek maratha, lakh maratha' gathers steam

The atmosphere near the Byculla zoo in Mumbai turned saffron on Wednesday morning as thousands of people gathered for the final morcha of Maratha community.

With the chanting of 'ek Maratha, lakh Maratha' thousands of people taking part in Maratha Kranti Morcha has started moving from Byculla heading towards Azad Maidan in CST.

Refusing any political support and to keep morcha completely non-political, the Marathas allegedly stopped Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar who had reached Azad Maidan to support the Maratha Morcha. However, Shelar has refused that such incident had happened.

In a similar way, at Byculla, the crowd tore down a banner put up by Shiv Sena. Local Shiv Sainiks had put up a banner supporting Maratha Morcha near Rani Baug from where morcha was started.

Many Muslim community groups have also come forward to support the morcha. They have put up benches and provided food, water to people who were part of morcha.

While all the strict security arrangements were made by the police officials for the mocha, there were many volunteers who were also seen posted for the mocha at various locations.

A special arrangement of volunteers from Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha were also posted at the Byculla Railway station to guide the supporters coming by suburban railway.

Ratnakar Sawant one of the supporters said, "We don't want to cause any inconvenience to anyone and so all the volunteers have been posted at various locations along the morcha who will see to it that the morcha is conducted in a disciplined manner."

The organisers also announced that those participating in the morcha should see to it that they don't shout slogans.

As far roads are concerned, Byculla station to S-bridge road stretch was kept reserved for the ambulance so that people don't have to face any inconvenience.

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